Thunder/Heat Recap

So yeah...this game sucked.  The Thunder managed to fall to their evil opposites from the East 103-97 on Christmas Day.  Despite a large FT disparity, the Thunder still managed to play poor team defense at the wrong times and give up easy baskets in transition that led to the Heat's 6 point victory.  KD was his usual brisk self, but both he and Russ had a cold first half, with KD sitting for more than a bit with foul trouble.

As noted at the onset of the game, it had been something like 4 games in a row since LBJ was called for a foul, and OKC managed to give him one early on in the first half, but with Durant getting his 3rd foul before halftime, it really put a damper on OKC's ability to compete.  The role players for Miami (mostly the 3 point shooters) came through in a big way, with Mario Chalmers nearly matching DWade's 21 with 20 points of his own.  Bosh had 16 including a huge dunk near the end of the game that killed the Thunder's rally bid.

Russ rebounded the rock well, and finished with a double dip of 21 and 11, but had only 3 dimes to go along with 5 turnovers.  Not exactly the pass first look most folks are hoping for out of their point guard.  But without Russ attacking the rim relentlessly (he had 12 free throw attempts) the Thunder would have been much worse off.  This was a chippy game, with a scrum between Russ, Wade, and Shane Battier near the midway point of the game, and you could tell both of these teams wanted a W badly.

There was the dunk by Bosh near the end of the game I mentioned before.  Perkins came off his man (Bosh) to help on LeBron out near the 3 point line...but it wasn't a hard double, and LeBron really wasn't driving or looking to shoot.  Perk also went to the wrong side of the floor if he was going to double, and I'll have to put my thoughts on Perk's value to the team in another article I guess.  Suffice it to say...it was an ugly game for Thunder fans.  But if I know one thing...is that the #ThunderNationRISE.